Day by day performance is becoming very important in the textile sector, particularly but not only for garment articles such as jeans, jackets, trousers, shorts and sport garments in general. Performance means high elasticity, good recovery, shaping, good fits, strength etc. Because of this, performance of warps and wefts in woven fabrics is really important, in particular as far as elasticity and comfort are concerned.
Over the years elastic woven fabrics have become very popular with the users; a woven fabric that is also elastic can provide an appearance and a performance that is better than the appearance or performance of a knitted fabric while still being very comfortable to wear. In order to produce elastic fabrics, elastic yarns are used; elastic yarns provide both aesthetic, and elasticity functions. The most common way of producing stretch fabrics is weft-stretch fabrics. Weft-stretch fabrics have non-elastic warp yarns and elastic weft yarns. In these fabrics different kinds of elastic weft yarns such as corespun elasthane yarns, twisted elasthane yarns, etc. are used. Weft-stretch fabrics are not stretchable along the warp direction, are usually comfortable but their comfort level is not enough during long usage times, as they do not follow the movements of the body.
In order to solve this problem, several types of fabrics have been developed, for example warp-stretch fabrics, and the so called “bi-stretch” fabrics, i.e. fabrics that can be stretched both in weft and warp direction. This bidirectional stretchability, i.e. ability to be elongated, is obtained by including elastic yarns in both warp and weft direction. However, also these kinds of fabrics present drawbacks.
Warp-stretch fabrics can present grin-through of the elastomer, i.e. the exposure, in a fabric, of bare elastomeric filaments to view. In fact, according to the known state of the art it is not possible to make very high stretch fabrics in vertical side (warp direction) because of quality problems of core spun yarn in rope dye.
Bi-stretch fabrics known in the art have also several problems, such as the growth of the fabric, and little recovery after stretching.
Another problem is the poor performance of highly elastic bi-stretch fabrics: after few stretch and return cycles, the known fabrics are not able to retain the original aspect. The fabrics lose their original hand and appearance and show curling, creasing and torqueing to such a degree that the garments made with said fabrics have to be discarded after a short time.
A problem of the known bi-stretch fabrics, for example denim fabrics, is that it is really difficult to obtain a fabric with the appropriate balance of physical characteristics, suitable for garments able to combine desirable visual and tactile aesthetics, with good performance in stretchability, recovery (i.e. limited growth of the fabric after having been elongated or stretched) and comfort.
For example, fabrics with a high amount of elastic yarns can have problems of loss of aesthetics, especially because of growth; on the contrary, fabrics with low values of elasticity can be uncomfortable in daily life. Additionally, prolonged usage of stretch fabrics can cause a loss in recovery power of the fabric, thus causing the growth of the fabric. Another problem of the known fabrics, for example denim fabrics, is the poor body holding, i.e. body shaping power.
Several solutions have been proposed to solve the above problems. WO2013/148659 discloses a woven fabric comprising a corespun elastic base yarn and a separate control yarn, to avoid overstretching. Control yarn is hidden inside the fabric by the adjacent elastic corespun base yarn. US 2012/0244771 discloses elastic composite yarns having a stretchable core and a sheath of spun staple fibers; the core is made of an elastic filament and an inelastic filament that is loosely wound around the elastic filament to control the stretching. The above disclosed solution provides bi-stretch fabrics that are provided with too low elasticity (i.e. stretch), namely about 10-12% warp direction and 17-20% in weft direction.
WO2008/130563 discloses elastic yarns having a core made of an inelastic fiber loosely wound around an elastic fiber.
WO 2012/062480, in the name of the present applicant Sanko Tekstil, discloses elastic composite yarns having elastic stretchable core and a sheath of inelastic staple fibers; the core is made of an elastic filament and a less elastic filament attached together by coextrusion, intermingling or twisting. The less elastic filament controls the stretch and provides recovery so as to move as a single fiber that has high elasticity and very good recovery properties.
WO2009022883 discloses a garment made from a fabric that is bias cut. The problem to be solved by this document is to provide an alternative to tight clothes made with elastic fabric containing rubber or elastic yarns. The claimed solution is to use a (non-elastic) bias-cut fabric i.e. a fabric cut in such a way that the diagonal line joining two over portions of adjacent wefts is oriented substantially horizontally.
Garments obtained from bias cut fabric are known also from e.g. GB 448829, relating to a brassiere in which the pockets 5 for the breasts are made at least in part with a fabric “cut on the bias”.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,800,159 discloses a method of producing a bias-cut cloth by coupling bias-cut fabric parts that are alternatively left bias and right bias. However, the above discussed problems of recovery power, comfort in use and holding/shaping power of the fabric are still present, particularly in the final garments that are styled in the so-called skinny or super-skinny models, i.e models that require a total or almost total adherence of the garment to the body of the user.
In view of the above mentioned problems, there is a need for new garments able to combine high elasticity and good aesthetics; for example, there is a need in the market for new fabrics having an improved holding power and recovery, reduced growth, combined with good visual and tactile aesthetics. More in particular, there is a need of new garments, such as denim garments, with improved recovery, improved body holding power and that can follow any body movement.